Community Participants
In Drinking Water System: Project Experiences Of Women Development Section Ministry
Of Panchayat And Local Development, Nepal

Uma Pradhan

Country Backgound

Nepal is a sovereign and mountainous Kingdom situated between the two big countries
People's Republic of China and India. The country in the south, east and west
is bordered by India and the North by Tibetan region of People's Republic of China.
It is more or less rectangular in shape with 8¢5 kilometres in length and
an averages of 200 kilometre in breadth. The total area of the Kingdom is 147181
Square Kilometres. Topographically, the country is divided into three distinct
regions, the Tarai in the South, Hill regions in the middle and high land of the
Himalayas ranges in the north. The altitude varies From 500 ft. in the south from
sea level to 29,00 ft. in the north. Of the total Land, only 20% is cultivable
and the rest being mountainous and barren. Its economy is basically agrarian and
subsistence prevails in economic activities. accessibility is limited, 35 percent
of the population has to walk about three days to reach a motorable road. Administratively,
the country is divided into 5 regions, 14 zones and 'l5 districts. Each district
is divided into Ilaka, town and viallage panchayat and urban centres. The total
population of Nepal is around 16 million with an annual growth rate of 2.6 percent.

Drinking Water- System
in Nepal

In 1976 eighty one percent of urban population and five percent of rural population
had access to piped water. The urban population is small (6.4 percent in 1981)
and concentrated in the three cities of Kathmandu valley it accounts for about
40 percent of the total urban population in 1981. A little more than 10 percent
of population in the country had access to such system in 19'6. At present scarcity
of piped water is increasing in the urban areas where as no significant. progress
has been made in the rural areas because most of the annual investment has gone
in maintaining the past projects.